Trip Report We'll Do As Dreamers Do... *COMPLETED*

Another fall has arrived at Walt Disney World, and so have we! For our 4th annual September trip, we returned to the basics that we fell in love with. A lot of resort hopping, getting a little wet at the water parks, and food (snack credits...so many...help!) It was a wonderful 9 days, and I can't believe I have room in my heart to love Disney even more, each and every time. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing these. Let the memories begin!

The cast: My husband, J, and I. People call us Mickey & Minnie.

Travel dates: September 3rd - September 11th, staying at All Star Music.

Pre-trip report: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/weve-fall-in-in-love.913624/

We began with the earliest flight I could possibly find, getting us into the promised land at 8:30 AM. Win! With a speedy check-in at All Star Music, we were off to Animal Kingdom...Lodge!

For the first time ever, we decided to take an entire non-park day to fulfill a bunch of dreams that we've always had on our bucketlist. We did so on our first day because it was the Saturday of a holiday weekend and hoped to avoid the crowds that way.

It definitely felt weird not heading straight to a park to begin the trip, but I really did appreciate the relaxing start. Just us and a quiet, beautiful morning sky at AKL.

Still in awe at how unique of an experience it must be to stay at AKL. It will be done in this lifetime!

On the way to 'breakfast' at The Mara (yup, I'm already talking about food), we passed by this beautiful waterfall area that I didn't notice the last time we were here. I was instantly wowed - the reality of it is that Disney can truly transport me to another place.

The Mara is the perfect stop for breakfast, because the perfect breakfast is...

Zebra Domes! Been absolutely CRAVING these for the past two years, and the time has finally come. It was everything I had hoped it would be.

J points out that I look ridiculous when photographing my food, but I needed to remember this moment.

We sat by the pool and snacked, not truly believing that we were here yet. It always takes a while to sink in, but what is perceived as mere decoration and foliage always mean something a little more to me.

The day had started off cool, but you could already feel that Florida heat doing work. Not fully acclimated yet, we retreated to the great indoors of Jambo House to look around some more.

Next stop...Kidani Village!

 

[belledream]

Less than 6 hours later, we were up and ready to go for our first park day!

It was pretty early - the morning sky was just beginning to manifest.

The love for Broadway continues.

This picture was not, in fact, taken with a potato...but it just reminds me of one of my most vivid childhood memories!

We walked by Jazz Inn everyday, because I had to see my beautiful fountain. A small glimpse of beauty in this value resort. It almost brings me to a moderate/deluxe state of mind!

We walked along, feeling that sweet, sweet feeling of your first full, fresh morning at Walt Disney World.

We are here, right?! I still might need someone to pinch me.

We stayed at Calypso the first time we were here. I think we were put in a preferred room even though we had paid for standard.

We never saw the pool open during this trip...that's how early and late we came back!

Walking past the food court, through the lobby, past Maestro Mickey's, we walked through those awesome automatic doors to the bus stops and the most iconic sight you could find here at the All Stars.

Time for some AM Extra Magic Hours at Hollywood Studios!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

What a first day!!!! I just love your trip reports, you can just FEEL the Fondness you have through your writing. It makes me feel so nostalgic just reading them!

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

Looks like you're having fun so far!

Omg I LOVE your All Star Music Broadway photos! My very first trip was at 3 years old offsite which I really don't remember. The next was when I was 8 and we stayed at ASM Broadway which was only a few months old at the time. My moms partner and I would go down to these mobile carts that had around the walkways to get breakfast. Absolutely awesome memories and your photos helped bring them back!! Thank you! Have fun.

 

[belledream]

What a first day!!!! I just love your trip reports, you can just FEEL the Fondness you have through your writing. It makes me feel so nostalgic just reading them!

Aww thank you! I love being able to put my thoughts and memories out like this, though I may overuse the word "love" a little too much!

Looks like you're having fun so far!

Omg I LOVE your All Star Music Broadway photos! My very first trip was at 3 years old offsite which I really don't remember. The next was when I was 8 and we stayed at ASM Broadway which was only a few months old at the time. My moms partner and I would go down to these mobile carts that had around the walkways to get breakfast. Absolutely awesome memories and your photos helped bring them back!! Thank you! Have fun.

Aww yes! Memories of a resort can really be as powerful as ones in the parks! It's your home!

 

[belledream]

The first full morning at WDW feels so sweet. To know that we have 12+ hours of time to write our own adventure together - something that will be repeated for the next 7 days to come, always reminds me what it's all about.

You may be wondering how we could possibly plan to spend 12+ hours at a park that seems to be only half-functioning.

Our plan: to do what we want to do, be opportunistic, and stop and smell the roses.

Hollywood Boulevard is underrated. All the building designs are so unique and I enjoy the boutique-feel of a few of the shops. But of course, now is not the time for shopping. That would come much later!

A quick glance at the stage in front of Grauman's Theater before continuing on...I was still caught off-guard with how much Star Wars has already taken presence in the park. (I guess I'll just say it now - my story is that I had never seen Star Wars, original or new, until this year, watching the new movie with J. It was okay... I think I just lack connection to the original storyline and characters, so while I'm excited to see what all the new Star Wars stuff brings today and in the future, I'm not as excited as I'm sure most others are. So forgive me for my lack of SW knowledge or enthusiasm!)

Anyways, moving on. We headed to Toy Story Mania for rope drop, walking right on with barely any time to glimpse the adorable queue.

Of course, I still made an attempt to document it.

First of all, I definitely feel like one of the toys! Second of all, Tinker Toys were the bomb.

Hidden Mickey Alert.

An abundance of excitement swelled over me. About to go on our first ride of the trip! With You've Got a Friend in Me playing merrily in the background, one of our favorites, we were ready to shoot some targets, toss some rings, break some plates, and enjoy every twist and turn.

In sadly what is true fashion, J beat me thanks to that cheap bonus round. But look at the accuracy. Terrible!

 

[belledream]

After we emerged, we contemplated riding again, but decided what was left of the AM EMH was better spent enjoying the park while it was still on the empty side. We stopped by the theater to take some pictures, and made our way towards Sunset Boulevard.

Underrated fountain, probably because it's always crawling with people. But not right now!

Sunset Boulevard is also underrated. You know, let's just go ahead and say Hollywood Studios is cool.

As we didn't choose a FP for Rock 'n' Rollercoaster, we decided to walk on now. It was a pretty good choice. We were indoors pretty quickly.

The poster screens in the queue were nice to look at...but I was definitely weirded out when I saw my name and hometown displayed on one of them. As delusional as I am, I thought it was real for a second, until J was like..."c'mon, no."

Whatever. I have been chosen!

I'm not a huge fan of RnR...I don't find much to it. Except the exhilarating takeoff. That makes it worth it.

This beauty, on the other hand, is always worth it.

But first, a quick glance into Carthay Circle because it has Beauty and the Beast merchandise. Guess who owns that Lumiere and Cosgworth???

I starting running up the queue like a child, or a dog, either one. J was behind me shouting, "Hey, stop running away!"

I guess that's why this picture came out the way it did. But I still like it, because it's a beautiful detail I wanted to remember.

 

[belledream]

Our tour now goes inside the Hollywood Tower Hotel, where jazz music echos quietly, but hauntingly through your soul.

Every cobweb, crack in the wall, and wear-and-tear detail is so well done.

The library always brings me back to the fear of 'Is this the ride? Are we about to fall?!'

Walking through the boiler room, waiting on our markers, and getting into that elevator is always an experience filled with anticipation and excitement. When the elevator moves creepily through the room, past the windows and that eye and the doors open to a gust of warmth, the only thing I can do is imagine what happens next. And we never know.

One must always check out the ride merchandise

We are particularly fond of this Goofy because our baby Goofy is afraid of heights. (The story is that before we were married, Pluto lived with me, and Goofy with J, and I happened to sleep on a loft bed for a while, so Pluto was used to the heights and thinks Tower of Terror is fun! Goofy, not so much. Yes, we play pook-a-looz. Yes, we know this sounds crazy.)

All the morning's excitement has gotten our tummies rumblin' for some breakfast. So to Sweet Spells we go!

I've been wanting to try the Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwich for some time now, but that Cookies & Cream Whoopie Pie had been on J's wishlist as well. As he is not a big carrot cake fan (what the heck, right?) and we wanted to just share something small, I gave him my blessing.

We carried it all the way to Echo Lake for the scenery and tables, since this was a knife-and-fork type of treat.

I've had my fair share of cookies & cream since you know, J and I spend a lot of time together, and I definitely felt like this was worthy of some kind of praise. The cake was moist, and the filling was whipped, it was as soft as cashmere.

Devoured and enjoyed.

 

[belledream]

As we walked towards the new Star Ways Launch Bay, these *check notes* Stormtroopers marched past us. Seemed serious.

This is bound to be my least informative post yet, but hopefully the pictures are of some interest to someone out there.

We entered a small room with a few displays...

And the only other hallway in the room lead to what I thought were the Meet & Greets...so I was pretty underwhelmed. But I was immediately corrected and relieved to see that there were whole other rooms with displays.

J was very enthused by what he saw, so I let him have his fun and snapped pictures for him to look back on. Meanwhile, I was looking around trying to think if seeing any of these things jogged my memory of what little knowledge I had of the movie and therefore, the story. It didn't, really. All I could think of was...I miss Magic of Animation.

 

[belledream]

So that's where they were going!

We came out of the Launch Bay, checked the Times Guide, and went to stand in line for the March of the First Order. It was pretty weird. They came out to this intense music, and walked up onto the stage, back down, and out. They must be extremely sweaty.

Gettin' real close and personal on their way. My favorite part about this was that they bossed guests around and told them to 'stand back' because they were hovering over the line too much.

Well, that was brief, but we were off to Toy Story Mania as we had found a 4th FP for it. We were pleasantly surprised, as we find those to be rare. It was the same old story, as results go, but we got some downtime to scout potential décor for children's rooms!

After that, we just kind of wandered.

Right to J's favorite: MuppetVision 3D.

He must be able to watch the entire preshow. I gotta say, I used to think it was just a bunch of indiscernible noise, but paying closer attention each time, there are so many gems.

We exited towards what used to be Streets of America. Truly a loss...I will miss wandering around there, scouring the details and listening to the sounds.

We had one of those 'look at that!' moments, seeing Mr. Honeydew on top. Don't know how we never noticed that before!

I think my dream job would be to go to yard sales and scout for items to decorate Disney shops with.

I definitely spent more time this trip looking at shop décor than at the actual merch. And I look at a lot of merch.

 

[MinnieM123]

I really liked the photos you took at night from the Contemporary. It's been quite a few years since I stayed there for just a few nights (it's just way too expensive for me). But I always picked an upper floor room, and loved the MK park views at night, in particular, with all the various lights, etc.

 

[belledream]

I really liked the photos you took at night from the Contemporary. It's been quite a few years since I stayed there for just a few nights (it's just way too expensive for me). But I always picked an upper floor room, and loved the MK park views at night, in particular, with all the various lights, etc.

I've only stayed in Contemporary as a kid, so it's really nostalgic. No way we could afford that right now! Even if we could, I like the themes of Poly & GF better, but you really can't beat walking to MK either. Theoretical problems!

 

[belledream]

We continued wandering through the Stage 1 Company shop through the odd-but-welcomed switch of theme...

It's welcomed because this has got to be one of my favorite shop displays in all of WDW shops. Nursery inspiration and goals!

It's always Christmas at It's A Wonderful Shop! Disney Christmas ornaments are an expensive hobby...but they're worth it. I can still picture the ornaments we grew up hanging every year and so I think of it as an investment for the future.

We were too early for the opening of PizzeRizzo, which was okay since we had our heart set on a different QS experience (we are in Hollywood Studios, right?) but we still got to enjoy some Disney humor.

*waves bye to Streets of America* I (for many reasons) literally can't picture what this is going to look like. We will have to wait and see...

So, the QS I was talking about was just up the corner...

...it is in fact, Backlot Express! Solely for the novelty of the Star Wars themed offerings.

The restaurant itself really gave me that backlot feel that we're now missing. Warehouse feel with interesting props, a view of the Jedi Training Academy (lunch show!) and...

Dark Side Chicken and Waffles! J's pick. It essentially tasted exactly what it looks like: chicken tenders with something that tasted kinda like a waffle. Anything fried is good in his book, so he enjoyed.

I got the Royal Guard Burger, which was your standard Disney burger, but topped with beef brisket and pepper jack cheese. I think the brisket did it's job in 'making' the burger taste better than just a normal burger. Wasn't sure how I'd like the pumpernickel bread at first, but it was more or less unoffensive. This was humongous and so filling that it hurt. I couldn't finish (which is unheard of) and felt uncomfortably full. Which leads us to dessert...

We got one of each specialty cupcake: Darth Vader Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake, and BB-8 Lemon Cupcake. We couldn't finish these either, but from what we tasted, we both like the Darth Vader one better. I'm not a huge peanut butter dessert fan, but I just didn't care for the lemon in the BB-8 one, and mostly just ate the toppings.

 

[belledream]

So full, we were in pain. I kept joke-pressuring J to finish my food, like a typical girl does, and he of course, claimed he could not.

So we walked out to the Jedi Training Academy show I was talking about, and observed for a bit. Kids are adorable.

Caught another march, this time, led by an extra shiny person who's name I do not know.

Waddled into One Man's Dream. Usually we come here to take an AC break, but it was very cool today. Mostly overcast and definitely not near the 90s. It was very pleasant.

I was finally able to walk around and understand what I was looking at. Glad this place is still here. It's nice to still be able to learn about the man who started it all.

This is pretty much what our house looks like:

We emerged to check some wait times and FP availability. We thought we could scratch the Tower of Terror itch some more, but there were no FPs available and the wait was...190 minutes!? How is that possible, with nothing else even coming close to that absurd wait time? Mistake? Technical difficulties? Only 1 elevator running? Whatever it was, it was a no-go for us. So we grabbed a Toy Story Mania FP (what is happening with this world?) and set off.

I love the Alien "Oooooh" shirt.

We then ran back to Sunset Boulevard to Theater of the Stars to watch my beloved Beauty and the Beast - Live on Stage!

It's a Tale as Old as Time. Love the costumes, the music, the dancing, the spoons, and pretty sure this time, Gaston had real muscles, not fabric-muscles.

 

[belledream]

Time to journey into the movies...for the last time? Not sure how I feel about that, but I do know that this ride, without fail, is always the longest line that we wait in. It's so weird, to be so powerless.

Our guide was really loud, and pretty sure he was from "Joisey" himself. I don't like how the narrator and the guide fight for your attention, and the new-er-ish movie compilation at the end doesn't make me as emotional as the old one did. Also, question: Why I'm getting emotional at a bunch of things I haven't seen before? Must be the music.

No, I'm not copying and pasting. We got another FP for Toy Story. Which at this point, it felt like we were regulars and I was becoming desensitized to the awe-factor we usually get when walking through the tent. It was more like, party of 2, yes, I know I'm going to the right, thanks!

The sun was coming out, so we decided to take a leisurely stroll down Hollywood Boulevard, popping into some shops along the way.

We found ourselves on a bench at Echo Lake and took a welcomed break.

J found a new detail at the nearby 50's Prime Time Café. Never noticed how the top deck looks like someone lives there. Pretty cute.

We decided to catch a showing of Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular before dinner, so off we went, where we spent the majority of the time laughing at the "cameraman" who was working so hard. It was just really funny to watch him film intensely, and be pushed around on his rolly-thing. Can't tell if he has the easiest or most boring job in the world.

One day, I will make J volunteer for this.

After the show, it was another FP for Toy Story Mania. We couldn't believe it either...but we squeezed it in before heading to dinner...and a movie!

 

[Ciara]

Such a great TR, love your attention to detail Definitely following along.

 

[belledream]

Such a great TR, love your attention to detail Definitely following along.

Thank you, so glad you are enjoying it! Definitely a detail-oriented person, so you can bet I'm in a happy place when I'm at WDW!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I cannot believe you rode TSMM that many times!!! WOW~

 

[belledream]

I cannot believe you rode TSMM that many times!!! WOW~

It was so unexpected! We used to be lucky if we got 2 or 3 rides in...

 

[DimpledDevil18]

I cannot believe you rode TSMM that many times!!! WOW~

I second that! Did I count 5 times that you rode it?

 

[belledream]

I second that! Did I count 5 times that you rode it?

Yup, you counted right. 5...so far...